Evan,
I want to offer some more critical reactions for "Epitaph" too.
I like your use of sound in this piece. It all works just fine and adds tension very well.
For me there were some visual problems - and perhaps this was intention. - I thought it was odd that the narration suggested your character had landed on a lifeless planet, yet the planet is teeming with life in sight and sound. When the narration suggested "nothing out here". My reaction was - what are you talking about? You just landed in a forest that is teeming with life... maybe this was your intent.
Also the middle scenes with all the shaky camera work were cliché. I would encourage any filmmaker to come up with new visual methods for conveying disorientation. Maybe you could generate a series of hallucinations. What fun eh?
I liked the character portraiture. You are a good actor.
I also liked your use of satellite imagery and have a link for you from Nasa:
http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/
maybe this is where you found your images. This is the best site I know of for satellite images. In fact, I think it is one of the most amazing websites on the planet.
hope my comments are helpful for you,
Steve
"Epitaph" online premiere.
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steve hyde
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Evan Kubota
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Thanks for the feedback-
"I thought it was odd that the narration suggested your character had landed on a lifeless planet, yet the planet is teeming with life in sight and sound."
Several other people I showed this to had a similar reaction. "Is it Earth?" "Where is he?"... etc. The scenes and images shown with cars, birds, etc. are definitely on Earth. This is not necessarily where the main character landed. It was probably influenced by Andrzej Zulawski's "The Silver Globe," which is constantly intercut with non-diegetic, nearly documentary-style scenes set in Eastern Europe. In that film it's fairly clear that they aren't part of the main story since the director literally explains in a voiceover at the beginning of the film that they weren't able to finish shooting, so this newly-shot 'found footage' was incorporated to fill in the rest of the film beneath voiceovers describing what 'would have happened (was in the script).' If you've seen that film, then I guess the representation there wouldn't pose a problem.. of course, very few people in the US have seen it.
When the character says "there is nothing out here," that's probably in reference to intelligent life measured by human scales. There are clearly birds or some kind of animal making noise in the forest scenes. Life in terms of something comparable to humans, where contact that is legitimate is a possibility? I doubt it.
Re: the POV sequence - my brother thought it went on too long, and I did cut it down by 20 seconds or so from the original. The truth is that I was strictly limited in what I could depict because no one else went with me to that location. I didn't bring a tripod or cable release. In order to shoot the film I had to generally exclude myself from the shots, although you do see a foot or a hand occasionally. The jump cuts I realize are frequently seen in 'student' films. I didn't want to use it necessarily for disorientation - more to suggest a subjunctivity, that the footage may be fake or unrelated. There are no footsteps or specific diegetic sound, either. What can I say? I've been watching a lot of films incorporating found footage (Cannibal Holocaust, Wings of Desire, The Silver Globe, etc.) ;)
I think the closing image came from the CAEDES archive, not from the NASA site. The NASA site doesn't appear to have true color or images as close as the one I used.
"I thought it was odd that the narration suggested your character had landed on a lifeless planet, yet the planet is teeming with life in sight and sound."
Several other people I showed this to had a similar reaction. "Is it Earth?" "Where is he?"... etc. The scenes and images shown with cars, birds, etc. are definitely on Earth. This is not necessarily where the main character landed. It was probably influenced by Andrzej Zulawski's "The Silver Globe," which is constantly intercut with non-diegetic, nearly documentary-style scenes set in Eastern Europe. In that film it's fairly clear that they aren't part of the main story since the director literally explains in a voiceover at the beginning of the film that they weren't able to finish shooting, so this newly-shot 'found footage' was incorporated to fill in the rest of the film beneath voiceovers describing what 'would have happened (was in the script).' If you've seen that film, then I guess the representation there wouldn't pose a problem.. of course, very few people in the US have seen it.
When the character says "there is nothing out here," that's probably in reference to intelligent life measured by human scales. There are clearly birds or some kind of animal making noise in the forest scenes. Life in terms of something comparable to humans, where contact that is legitimate is a possibility? I doubt it.
Re: the POV sequence - my brother thought it went on too long, and I did cut it down by 20 seconds or so from the original. The truth is that I was strictly limited in what I could depict because no one else went with me to that location. I didn't bring a tripod or cable release. In order to shoot the film I had to generally exclude myself from the shots, although you do see a foot or a hand occasionally. The jump cuts I realize are frequently seen in 'student' films. I didn't want to use it necessarily for disorientation - more to suggest a subjunctivity, that the footage may be fake or unrelated. There are no footsteps or specific diegetic sound, either. What can I say? I've been watching a lot of films incorporating found footage (Cannibal Holocaust, Wings of Desire, The Silver Globe, etc.) ;)
I think the closing image came from the CAEDES archive, not from the NASA site. The NASA site doesn't appear to have true color or images as close as the one I used.
Production Notes
http://plaza.ufl.edu/ekubota/film.html
http://plaza.ufl.edu/ekubota/film.html
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steve hyde
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Evan,
It was clear to me that the montage showing traffic and such was a retrospective - longing to be back on earth etc. It was the site and sound of the initial arrival that was conflicted for me. The location is too earth like.... Who built the road your character is walking on?
Visual language is hard to control - I know.
Have you seen the documentary "Touching the Void"? There is a brilliant disorientation scene in that where the camera is on a boom that is attached to the person who is disoriented. The shot acheives character focus and disorientation at the same time.
In "Epitaph" I think the stongest scenes are the ones that have the character in the picture. I think your short would be stonger if your character was in as many frames of the picture as possible.
Steve
It was clear to me that the montage showing traffic and such was a retrospective - longing to be back on earth etc. It was the site and sound of the initial arrival that was conflicted for me. The location is too earth like.... Who built the road your character is walking on?
Visual language is hard to control - I know.
Have you seen the documentary "Touching the Void"? There is a brilliant disorientation scene in that where the camera is on a boom that is attached to the person who is disoriented. The shot acheives character focus and disorientation at the same time.
In "Epitaph" I think the stongest scenes are the ones that have the character in the picture. I think your short would be stonger if your character was in as many frames of the picture as possible.
Steve